A complex legal dispute over a property deal in central London could be heading to mediation or a future trial.

Another complex dispute over property involving wellheeled Gulfis has come to the High Court of Justice in London, where Sheikha Hind Bint Salim Hamud Al- Jaber Al-Sabah and two other claimants are pursuing a legal action involving six defendants, including the Kuwaiti royal’s sister Sheikha Salem Hamud Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and Iraqi- Emirati businessman Hussain Sajwani, chairman of UAE-based developer Damac Properties.

The sheikhas’ father was Sheikh Salim Hamud Al-Sabah, described in court documents as a high-ranking professional soldier who was head of the Emiri Guard for 25 years. A grandson of Emir Sheikh Jaber I (who ruled from 1915 to 1917), Sheikh Salim died on 10 June 2003 without leaving a will; he left 15 heirs, including the two sisters. His estate included two adjoining flats, numbers 61 and 62, at 3-8 Porchester Gate, on the north side of Hyde Park in central London. The two flats had been converted into a single property and were registered in the names of two Gibraltar companies, Rosork Holdings and Fairlann Trading.

In June 2009, the combined property was bought for a documented price of £1.9m ($2.9m today) by British Virgin Islands-incorporated Gulf Heritage Properties Company Ltd, controlled by Sajwani. The transaction was arranged by agent Tareq Al Baho, a Kuwaiti national. At the centre of the disputeare Sheikha Hind’s claims that the property was undervalued at £1.9m and that a ‘bribe’ was paid to secure the property at a below-market rate. She contends that the property’s true value is £2.5m-3m.

In the particulars of a claim submitted to the High Court in July, Sheikha Hind said that, on top of the £1.9m, further payment of “not less than £600,000” was paid by or on behalf of Sajwani to Al Baho or Andrew Pinnell, a solicitor appointed under a power of attorney in 2008 to represent 12 of the 15 heirs and Sheikh Salim’s estate. The £600,000 figure is based in part on a claim that Al Baho told Foxtons estate agency that the property had been sold for £2.5m – in other words £0.6m above the £1.9m figure. The property had been marketed through Foxtons for a time, although the sale was agreed separately.

Two other claimants in the proceedings, property agents Asad Meerza and Mohsen Mehra, claim they are owed a £300,000 commission from Al Baho and Sheikha Salem for their role in introducing Sajwani to Al Baho.

In their defence, Sajwani and Gulf Heritage say they paid £2.2m, comprising £1.9m for the property and an agent’s fee of £300,000; these sums were paid to the benefit of Rosork Holdings and Fairlann Trading. The £300,000 was paid via two bankers drafts made out in UAE dirhams. Gulf Heritage and Sajwani say no payment was made to anyone other than the two vendor companies and deny that the £300,000 constituted a ‘bribe’. They also deny that a sum of “not less than £600,000” was paid in connection with the property purchase.

In a further twist, Sheikha Hind claims that Al Baho obtained the £300,000 by lodging the two bankers drafts in accounts held by two ‘clone companies’ that he had set up in the UK and which had identical names to the two Gibraltar companies, Rosork Holdings Ltd and Fairlann Trading Ltd.

In a two-day hearing in the High Court’s chancery division, Justice Peter Smith noted that Al Baho had not served a defence nor filed any evidence. On 3 November, he made judgements that Sheikha Hind could claim a number of interim payments from Al Baho and BC Penthouse Ltd, a company wholly- or partly-owned by Al Baho, for the benefit of the estate.

According to the defence, substantial sums have been spent on the Porchester Gate property since the transaction went through, including £1.89m to renovate and extend it. The property is used by Sajwani as his personal residence when in London.

A lawyer for the three claimants, Matthew Jenkins at Hughmans Solicitors, told GSN that mediation efforts have been proposed and are due to take place before Christmas. If they do not go ahead, or prove unsuccessful, the matter is expected to proceed to trial in early 2017. A spokesman at FTI for Sajwani declined to comment on the proceedings. Lawyer Richard Barca at Wilson Barca, for Al Baho, Pinnell and Sheikha Salem, did not respond to a request for comment.